This invention pertains to cytometers and particularly to optical systems of cytometers. More particularly, the invention pertains to the optical acquisition of information about microscopic particles or components in a flow stream of a cytometer.
This invention is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/225,325, by Bernard Fritz et al., filed Aug. 21, 2002, and entitled “Optical Alignment Detection System”, which is incorporated herein by reference; and the invention is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/304,773, to Aravind Padmanabhan et al., filed Nov. 26, 2002, and entitled “Portable Scattering and Fluorescence Cytometer”, which is incorporated herein by reference. This invention also is related to U.S. Pat. No. 6,549,275 B1, by Cabuz et al., issued Apr. 15, 2003, and entitled “Optical Detection System for Flow Cytometry”; U.S. Pat. No. 6,597,438 B1, by Cabuz et al., issued Jul. 22, 2003, and entitled “Portable Flow Cytometer”; U.S. Pat. No. 6,382,228 B1, by Cabuz et al., issued May 7, 2002, and entitled “Fluid Driving System for Flow Cytometry”; U.S. Pat. No. 6,700,130 B2, issued Mar. 2, 2004, by Fritz, and entitled “Optical Detection System for Flow Cytometry”; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,240,944 B1, by Ohnstein et al., issued Jun. 5, 2001, and entitled “Addressable Valve Arrays for Proportional Pressure or Flow Control”; all of which are incorporated herein by reference. The term “fluid” may be used herein as a generic term that includes gases and liquids as species. For instance, air, gas, water and oil are fluids.